Thursday, August 9, 2012

Buffalo, WY

After a late morning of planning and making reservations for our next stop, we spent some time exploring Buffalo, our hometown for a few days. There is a new Visitor Center at the I-90 exit with the most welcoming monument and sculpture (named Cool Water, by D Michael Thomas) I've seen.

There are several working artist studios here and the area has a quite colorful wild west history. We walked around downtown; ate lunch at a cafe that's been there since 1927; absorbed the sounds and beauty of Clear Creek running through downtown; checked out the free public swimming pool which is the biggest pool in WY; and watched two women paint this magnificent mural in what will be a new downtown community space.

Just outside town to the west are the Bighorn Mountains. I don't believe I had ever heard of these mountains but I'm certainly glad we know them now. Here are scenes of the drive into Bighorn National Forest.

It's only sixteen miles from town up to the Loaf Mountain Overlook; just look at all the layers of mountains seen from this point.

A forest of Lodgepole Pine Trees begins to the side of the parking lot at the Loaf Mountain Overlook. See Rich walking away into the forest? These trees grow so dense that one could quickly get lost.

Looking up through the pines.

On our way back to town, we turned off the highway onto the road leading to Tie Hack Reservoir. I can't explain it, but I LOVE wading out into a stream, creek, lake, ocean...there's something primordial about it for me. This was for real, in person, my idea of perfection, Cool Water, just like the name of that sculpture.

Rich is waiting in our car for me to leave the water so we could go...so patient.

Driving back to the highway on the narrow dirt road, we stopped to photograph a few of the amazing rock formations.

A pretty gnarly storm just passed through here and it's getting late. Tomorrow we'll see even more of this beautiful mountain range.